


scare me up a little bit of love

by plastics



Category: Ready or Not (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bittersweet Ending, F/M, Ghosts, Mentions of past canon relationships, everyone dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:54:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26457508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plastics/pseuds/plastics
Summary: The sun rose on a new day. The Le Domas family found a new patriarch.Daniel needed another drink.
Relationships: Daniel Le Domas/Grace Le Domas
Comments: 4
Kudos: 79
Collections: Jump Scare 2020





	scare me up a little bit of love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Snickfic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snickfic/gifts).



Daniel first sees her again while standing at the window in his childhood bedroom, a neat but overfilled glass of classic bourbon in hand, like some sort of doomed Gothic protagonist. The sun has long since set and left the surrounding woods in a deep, dull darkness—the white of her dress flickers stark as it speeds past the treeline. 

He watches until she disappears, then wipes his eyes, hard.

  
  


It’s harder to shake off the following evening. He can only take so much family time, watching Alex slowly reclaim his position as the favorite, if the title had ever been threatened in the first place. Especially when last summer still feels like it’s clinging to the walls of this house. _Estate._

And it must be, because when Daniel escapes upstairs, there she is again. Not just a white speck in the distance, his mind playing tricks, but a woman, darting from door to door, rattling locked latches, beautiful as she was on her wedding day. The only difference becomes clear once she turns to him: The wine-drunk flush to her face drained to an anemic gray.

“Daniel,” she sighs, and she almost sounds relieved, somehow, as she rushes towards him. Her hands are frigid cold points on his shoulders without any pressure. “Please, I need your help, I need to get out of here—”

“I…” and for all the horrors Daniel has seen in his life, this is new. Unprecedented. The shallowly-buried guilt rises once more. “I didn’t help you the first time.”

Confusion flashes across her face. Frustration, too. 

The stairs creak behind him. Probably Mom coming to soothe ruffled feathers, shoo him back in line. He looks back to her just in time to watch that fuck-you clench in her jaw settle into place before she races down the hall.

* * *

Daniel sleeps in his own bed now. Divorce isn’t really a thing in the Le Domas family, as god-fearing as they are not, but separation has a nice ring to it. It’s not like any of his many homes don’t have the room to hold him and Charity both.

Still, he never sleeps easy. Especially not at _the_ house. It’s almost a blessing when she reappears — a manifestation of the heaviness that sits on his chest like an obese cat. The dress is torn, now, muddied and stained with blood, but her face doesn’t hold the same panic as it did last time or the time before that.

“Last time you were here,” Grace starts, although it was not the last time, “you said you didn’t help me.”

“I didn’t. Not really.”

“You tried, though. It just… wasn’t enough.”

“No.” Daniel’s throat constricts. The guilt should have subsided by now, Daniel thinks. He’s considered his options many times—daily, in fact—and he’s not sure he would have ever done anything differently. Both times. That sort of confidence should free a man.

“And now I’m a ghost. Trapped in this fucking house. Fuck.” She drops heavy on the edge of his bed, elbows resting on sprawled knees. It’s all more human than Daniel would’ve guessed a ghost would be. He’s reminded in a flash of that first time he met her, her vibrance, his certainty that this family was going to be the worst thing to ever happen to her, orphan and all.

Daniel sits up. He’s not really sure what he’s supposed to be doing, what she is doing, if this is some sort of ghost of sins past type of situation. “Are there more of you?”

“Not that I’ve seen, despite the copious amount of corpses you all have stashed around this place. Like, truly a ridiculous number of corpses.”

“We’re an old family,” Daniel says automatically.

“Oh, please. Nothing in this country is that old,” Grace snaps, before groaning and rubbing at her eyes. 

“Do you need something? Is there anything I can do?” Daniel finally asks. She looks up at him, and for the first time, he can really see the impermanence of however she is right now, the blurring around the edges. 

“No,” she answers. “I just… I still feel like a person, you know? And it’s hard to be. Like this. So. I guess I just wanted to say hi. Reintroduce myself.”

“Well, then,” Daniel says. “Hello. Nice to meet you.”

* * *

Little Georgie is getting married. How people in this family, especially as tenacious a little shit as Daniel’s nephew, keep tricking decent folks into marrying them, he will never understand. Still, he dresses in an appropriate suit, stands for the necessary photos, cracks into the booze early.

(Emilie has her fingers crossed that it’ll be one of the cousins who pays the price this generation, but Daniel has a feeling. They always do.)

He has a nice haze going by the time Aahna says, “I do,” dressed in a stunning red gown. It’ll be easy to spot as the night goes on.

  
  


Aahna has a sharp look in her eyes. Aahna says, “Oh, I _love_ games. George and I’s first date was me destroying him at laser tag.” 

Aahna has a white shadow trailing after her. Daniel thinks, then knows, that she’s going to be the one to make it.

  
  


Daniel is bleeding out in the foyer. He sees his brother’s face, its cool set. He wants to beg Alex not to bother, but the words won’t come out. Weakly, Daniel squeezes his hand back.

He hears screaming. The world frizzes around him, then fades to black.

  
  


When he comes to, light is coming through the windows. Flames are licking up the walls. A distorted record plays from down the hall. At his feet is his own corpse.

“Welcome to the afterlife,” Grace says. She’s standing next to him, no longer in her wedding dress. Looking at her now, it’s like a filter has been wiped away. Hesitantly, Daniel reaches out to touch her and finds that he can, finally, so he pulls her close, is amazed by the entirety of it. Nothing has felt more real than this moment.

He’s not sure how long they hold each other. Time feels different now. Space feels different now. When he finally pulls back and looks around, it feels as if they’re still stuck in the same moment. “Well,” Daniel says. “What now?”

Grace shrugs, then smiles — excited. “Hard to say. Whatever’s next, I guess.”

“I… think that means different things for you and me.”

The house feels a million miles away now, like some stranger’s, and yet he can feel the oppressive force of it, evil sunk into its bones like mold. Behind Grace, he can see Mr. Le Bail—actually _see_ him—rise from his chair. He’s looking right at Daniel.

Grace reaches up, turns his face back towards hers with a careful but firm band.

“Listen, if you’d asked me the day I died what I thought I’d be doing after, I would have said nothing. And as happy as I am to watch your family explode, no offense, I wouldn’t have described it as my life’s purpose, either,” Grace says. With her free hand, she squeezes his again. “All I’m saying is, I don’t think anyone really knows the rules. And for all those years, you were the only one who could see me. Maybe that means something.”

“Maybe.” Daniel thinks he probably doesn’t have a heart anymore but it still feels like it’s racing with fear. This is the life he lived, right? He knew that. Expected the debt to be paid somehow.

“I don’t think you’re actually listening,” Grace says, and Daniel’s gaze snaps back to her’s. “Whatever this is, it got on me, too. And we probably have whatever forever is to figure it out. Okay?”

“Okay,” Daniel says, because there’s nothing left to say, and he’s rewarded with another smile, two hands cupping his jaw, a kiss, before fate settles in.


End file.
